


Felicity Meets Josefina

by FriendvilleFan



Category: American Girl Dolls - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28361517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendvilleFan/pseuds/FriendvilleFan
Summary: Felicity Merriman is on a road trip across the west when she uses time travel to visit some other American Girls and accidently brings them to the future.





	Felicity Meets Josefina

The Four Corners, Summer Road Trip 2019  
“It’s so hot I’m melting!” Felicity Merriman whined as she fanned herself with a half smashed up piece of paper. It was 110 degrees outside, but it felt hotter inside this baking oven of a car. She was wearing her coolest, whitest and lightest summer dress with the blue ribbon around her waist and the big frisbee hat to shade her face from the evil glare of the southwest sun, but she was still so unbearably hot she feared that the sweat running down her face wasn’t sweat at all but in fact melting plastic.   
Patricia the Park Ranger, who was not made of any material that could melt, smirked at her kidnapper and said, “I hope you melt into a big puddle right now!”  
Felicity scowled. “That isn’t very nice.”  
“Well, it isn’t very nice to kidnap a Park Ranger and bring me home as a souvenir!”  
“You’re going to love living in the Playroom, everyone does,” said Felicity. Then she jumped up to stare out the car window. “How long is this going to take? Why can’t I have my picture in four states too? I’m important, I’m on this trip, I deserve my rights!”  
Patricia rolled her eyes. “I guess this Jessica girl doesn’t love you as much as she says.”  
“Shut up,” Felicity snapped. “Or I will toss you out this window right now and leave you to get trampled by a hundred real world cars in this dusty parking lot.”  
“That would be preferable to this,” Patricia muttered. “And probably less painful too.”  
“What state are we in anyway?” Felicity wondered.   
“It’s the Four Corners, we’re actually in four states,” said Patricia going into her educational Park Ranger mode.   
Felicity yawned in boredom as she mentally prepared for another long lecture. She hated it when Patricia went off on a long winded educational rant. She had been hoping for a handsome cowboy, but now she was stuck with this nerd instead.   
“The Four Corners is a unique intersection point between Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico,” said Patricia. “The monument is a Navajo Tribal Park and also marks the boundary between the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Reservation. It was set up by Congress in 1861 during the Civil War as the southwest corner of Colorado territory as a way of discouraging residents from siding with the confederacy. After the war, it was surveyed to create states out of earlier disputed territories. In 1868, E.N. Darling put out the first boundary line with a sandstone marker, but the first permanent marker was placed at this site in 1912. In 1931, the Navajo government placed a bronze disk here that says, ‘Four states here meet in freedom under God’ with two words occupying each state. It also features the state seal from each of the four states.”   
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Nobody cares,” said Felicity. “But what state are we in now?”  
Patrica sighed. Some people had absolutely no appreciation for a history lesson. “I think the car is parked in New Mexico if that’s what you’re wondering.”  
“New Mexico!” Felicity’s face brightened. “I’ve always wanted to go to New Mexico!”  
“Really?” said Patricia in disbelief.   
“No,” said Felicity. “It’s too hot and deserty and I hate it, but while we’re here we might as well make the best of it.” Felicity climbed over into the front seat and stepped on the unlock button. The car immediately started alarming, but Felicity was out the door before any nearby humans could notice.   
Patricia had her hands clamped over her ears as she followed Felicity out. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”   
Felicity grinned as she reached into her pocket hoop for a time machine. She had brought five time machines on this trip with her because one could never leave home with too many time machines, but now two were missing and she only had three left. “I know somebody who lives in New Mexico and now would be an excellent time to meet her.”  
“Meet her?! How can you know somebody you’ve never met?”  
“Know of her,” Felicity corrected. “Her mug shot is slapped all over the walls at home, why not----”  
“You keep mug shots of strangers on your walls?” With each new thing Felicity told her about her home, the more Patricia got a very bad feeling about this red haired crazy chick.   
“It’s complicated,” Felicity explained. “I’m actually from a family of adopted, orphaned, time traveling clones. We keep pictures on our walls about who we want to adopt next, it’s kinda like a hit list.”  
“A hit list,” muttered Patrica. “Oh, great. So this Josefina girl is just another person you’re going to try and kidnap on this trip?”   
Felicity looked appalled. “I’ve never kidnapped anybody in my life!”  
“Excuse me, still here,” said Patricia, “the Park Ranger that you kidnapped against my will!”  
“That wasn’t kidnapping,” said Felicity, “that was liberating a person from a corrupt system. I’m not at all like my pirating brother in law who married the girl he kidnapped.”  
Now it was Patricia’s turn to look appalled. “You’re not going to try and marry me are you?!”  
Felicity ignored her and kept talking. “Josefina Montoya will never ever come to the Playroom and nobody will ever know about this which means we’re free to have some fun with her now.”   
Patricia frowned. “Like that Julie girl you kept jabbering on about in San Francisco?”   
“Exactly! Only this time we’re actually gonna meet her.” With that, Felicity pressed a few buttons on the time machine and the two disappeared in a flash of light.   
Montoya Rancho Outside Santa Fe, New Mexico 1832  
Seventeen year old Maria Josefina Montoya bent by the stream and filled her jar with water. The sun hadn’t risen completely yet so there was a beautiful pink glow across the sky that highlighted the peachy streaks in the desert landscape around her. For Josefina, getting water from the stream every morning was a peaceful moment to pray before the hustle and bustle of another busy work day began. Josefina knelt by the stream and felt the cool water seep over her hands as she put the jar in the water. She sucked in a deep breath of the cool morning air as she gave thanks to God for the water in her jar. El agua es la vida, but with the drought that had been raging for the last couple of years she was deeply afraid of death visiting her family’s rancho again. It had been exactly ten years since Mama died and still not a day went by that Josefina did not think of her. Josefina touched her heart necklace and whispered, “I miss you Mama, and oh how I wish you could see Clara’s wedding.”   
Josefina’s older sister Clara was getting married tomorrow to a man named Pablo Montoya who was from the city of Taos which was north of Santa Fe. Josefina had only been there once to visit Clara’s new family. Taos was similar to Santa Fe, only it was smaller and even more rustic. Josefina was sad that her sister was leaving them for a city so far away, but she was happy that Clara was finally getting what she wanted for once. As the practical one, Clara often sacrificed her own dreams for what she thought was best for others. Clara had handed the squash to several suitors making the family fear that Clara would be another old maid like their other sister Francisca.   
Francisca had had many suitors, but she always handed the squash to every single one. Despite being obsessed with the idea of marriage for a time as a young teen, Francisca finally realized that marriage wasn’t for her so she moved to Santa Fe and opened her own business. Josefina still wasn’t sure exactly what that business was and it seemed like nobody wanted her to know. Josefina had heard whispers and rumors about it being a gambling place for rough and tumble Americano cowboys, but as the baby of the family the Montoyas tended to keep their scandalous secrets hidden away from Josefina.   
But Josefina wasn’t a baby anymore and she was looking for an opportunity to prove it to them. She was a Curandera in her own right. Josefina had spent years honing her skills alongside Tia Magedelana by healing any ailments the people in her village seemed to have. But then Tia Magedelena died and Josefina was suddenly left without a mentor though she was proud to continue Tia Magedelana’s legacy by continuing her work. Despite Tia Dolores’s godly advice, Josefina blamed herself for Tia Magedelena’s death because she had been unable to heal her at the time. Josefina had spent the last five years trying to make up for it by working even harder on honing her healer skills. As such, Josefina didn’t have time for silly things like suitors. Besides, she was happy to spend the rest of her life on Papa’s Rancho as a Curandera to the people who so desperately needed her.   
Josefina’s older sister Ana, who lived in Santa Fe with her husband Tomas, her twin boys Antonio and Juan, and Abuelita (since Abuelito died on the Santa Fe trail trying to trade with the Americanos years ago may he rest in peace), encouraged Josefina to give up being a Curandera and get married. “You don’t want to be alone for the rest of your life, Josefina, or even worse end up like Francisca! When I was your age I was pregnant with my boys and yet here you are still playing Curandera. Do you want to die alone and in shame like Tia Magedelena, hmmm?”  
“I’m hardly alone with everyone on the Rancho,” Josefina replied lightly. “Besides, Tia Magdalena was hardly shamed, she was greatly respected and saved lives.”  
“But whose life did she fail to save, Josefina?” Ana would say quietly. “When it mattered the most to all of us, who did she fail to save? And after that why did Papa kick her out of our home and make her live alone essentially shunning her from this family?”  
Josefina bowed her head. “Maybe I’m not ready for marriage, maybe I’ll never be.”  
“Being a mother isn’t a bad thing, Josefina,” Ana pleaded. “I wish you could see------”  
“Ana, you’re free to live your life and I’m free to live mine. Please, let me be. God wants me to be a Curandera, I just know it.” And to save people just like Mama so another little girl won’t have to grow up motherless like we did, Josefina often thought.   
Ana sighed, and left Josefina alone to live her Curandera dreams though every once in a while she might try and mention marriage again. Even though Ana couldn’t convince Francisca or Josefina that marriage was the best option for a woman’s future, she had managed to sway Clara. Although Josefina didn’t want marriage for herself, she was happy for Clara and was excited for her wedding tomorrow. A wedding meant that both Ana and Francisca were home for a visit and the dancing and parties were to begin soon. Josefina loved to dance at the fandangos when she wasn’t providing the piano music of course.   
Clara and Pablo had met at a fandango in Santa Fe during a visit to Ana and Abluelita and it had been love at first sight ever since. Clara liked to joke that she didn’t even have to change her last name. Pablo was probably some distant cousin of theirs, but that didn’t bother them as their own Tia Dolores married Papa. Josefina smiled as she thought of her aunt who was now more like a mother to her. What would she do without Tia Dolores in her life? She’d be lost for sure without her loving guidance and care.   
As Josefina carried the water jar on her head to the kitchen, she turned and saw something strange in the distance behind her. The ground was shaking as a fierce wind picked up billows of dust. Two people fell from the sky screaming loudly as they landed smack on top of a cactus. Josefina feared an earthquake or a sandstorm or a tornado, but the shaking and the wind stopped seconds after it had started. Josefina dropped her water jar and it shattered into a thousand pieces. She started to run towards the safety of the Rancho, but as she heard another scream coming from the cactus people she turned and ran towards them instead. Maybe they needed help that only she could give, a Curandera’s help to be exact.   
Josefina breathed a short prayer as she rushed towards the cactus where a young woman dressed in men’s clothing laughed at another young woman who was screaming and crying as she tried to pluck cactus needles out of her bare arms. The girl who was unsuccessfully trying to remove the cactus from her flesh wore a long white dress in a fancy style that Josefina had never seen before. She also wore a big straw sombrero held on by blue ribbons tied in a big bow around her neck as it bounced down along her back. Josefina did not fail to notice a cowboy’s gun neatly tucked into a blue ribbon around her waist.   
“Can I help you?” Josefina asked.  
The two young women stopped what they were doing and stared at Josefina blankly. They muttered to each other in what she thought was Ingles, but then the red haired girl snapped her fingers and in a tinkle of sparkles was suddenly speaking perfect Spanish. “That’s much better. My name is Felicity Merriman and you must be-----” The girl dressed as a man coughed loudly and Felicity added, “Oh, this is Patri---” The girl coughed again and Felicity said, “I mean this is, uh, Patrick, my uh, brother----”  
“Brother?” Josefina raised an eyebrow. Said brother was clearly a girl, but if these people wanted to pretend otherwise then who was Josefina to stop them? Two women traveling alone was impractical and dangerous, so having one of them pretend to be a boy was a good idea.   
“Yes, brother.” Felicity glared at her “brother” and Patricia glared back. Then Felicity turned to Josefina to shake hands with a hand that was dirty and bleeding.   
Josefina stared at Felicity’s hand. Then she reached into her leather pouch for a bandage as she attempted to clean up Felicity’s wound.  
Felicity yanked her hand away. “What are you doing?”  
Josefina blinked in confusion. “Healing your wound.”  
“I don’t need your magical healing powers, I’m fine!”  
Josefina shrugged. “Suit yourself. But----”  
“I told you, I’m fine!”  
“Are you Americanos?” Josefina asked.   
“No, I’m colonial,” Felicity replied.  
Patricia rolled her eyes and said, “Yes, we’re American.”  
“Of course we’re American!” Felicity shouted. “And you are too, Josefina, you just don’t realize it yet.”  
Josefina was startled. “How do you know my name?”  
“Uhhh. . . . .you just said it?”  
Josefina frowned. “No, I didn’t. I never told you my name.”   
“Great going Felicity,” Patricia muttered. “Now she’s suspicious.”   
“At least I’m wearing somewhat time appropriate clothes,” said Felicity glaring at Patricia’s khakis.   
“Well excuse me for not waking up expecting to time travel today!”  
“If we get caught by the time travel police then it will be all your fault!”  
“My fault?!” Patricia echoed. “But I’m not the one who used an illegal time machine to----”  
“The police won’t know that especially after I tell them it was you. If I go down, I’m taking you with me!”   
As Patricia and Felicity began to argue, Josefina glanced at the Rancho behind her and wondered if it would be rude for her to run to safety and leave these two out here. She didn’t understand what they were saying though they spoke amazingly perfect Spanish for two clueless Americanos. Time travel? Illegal? Police? Were these people outlaws? Were they running from the Mexican Government or the American one? And what on earth was time travel? Josefina had no concept for it and she was beginning to wonder if these Americanos had been in the New Mexican sunshine a little too long. No, it wasn’t in Josefina to just abandon these Americanos who clearly didn’t understand the landscape and would die in a matter of seconds. Josefina saw the rattlesnake behind a rock on the other side of the cactus and yucca plants, but she was sure the Americanos hadn’t noticed. As long as they left it alone, no harm would come to anyone but Josefina somehow doubted that this Felicity girl could leave anyone or anything well enough alone.   
Felicity, desperate to change the subject, said, “When are we anyway?”  
“When?” Josefina asked. What a strange question. Americanos really were weird.   
Patricia smacked a hand to her forehead wishing she could be anywhere and anywhen else. “I mean, where,” Felicity corrected.  
Before Josefina could answer a voice yelled from the Rancho, “Josefina! Josefina! Hurry up with that water! Today of all days is not a day to dally!”  
“Coming Clara,” Josefina called back.   
“Ooo, what’s happening today?” Felicity asked.   
Josefina took a deep breath and somehow knew she would regret it when she said, “Why don’t you guys come into the Rancho with me? My sister Clara is getting married tomorrow and there is a lot to do to get ready for the fiesta tonight.”  
“Ooo!” Felicity squealed. “I love parties! How many pinatas do you guys have?”  
“None!” Josefina looked scandalized. “It’s not lent, you know.”  
Felicity didn’t know and that was the problem. “No pinata! How can you have a fiesta with no pinata?”  
Now Josefina was really confused. “We’re not missionaries, why would we have a pinata?”  
“Whatever, let’s just go.” And Felicity took off running towards the Rancho with a concerned Josefina and an annoyed Patricia following behind.  
******************************************************************************  
“Josefina Montoya! Where have you been?”   
Clara was angry and Josefina felt badly, but there was nothing she could do except for make up for lost time by working extra hard. “Lo siento Clara,” Josefina murmured. “But I----”  
“That’s no excuse! Pablo and his family will be here any minute, nothing is ready, and----”  
“This is a fiesta?” Felicity whined as she looked around the small smoky kitchen that was flashing in the light with the colorful skirts of busy women. “It looks like------”  
“Josefina, who are your guests?” Tia Dolores asked with a cheery smile.  
Josefina winced as Clara looked at her in outrage. “Oh, they’re not my guests-----”  
“Oooo, that looks tasty, can I try some?” Felicity stuck a spoon into the dish Ana was making. Ana glared at her, but Felicity didn’t notice or care. She took a bite and promptly spit it out everywhere. “Yuck! That’s nasty! How can you eat this stuff?”  
Tia Dolores' smile faded and she pulled Josefina aside. “I found them wandering around the desert,” Josefina admitted. “They looked rather pathetic, like they needed help.”  
Tia Dolores’s eyebrows rose. “Needed help?”  
Josefina nodded. “Si. I don’t know where they came from exactly, but they claim to be Americans.”  
Tia Dolores sighed. “Josefina, I know you want to help people but this bringing crazy strangers here has got to stop. Remember the banished Navajo who stole our sheep or the drunken Mexican who almost murdered Papa?”  
“Nobody is a lost cause,” said Josefina. “Besides, I’m only trying to do what Tia Magdalene did, I’m only trying to do what God wants me to do.”  
And since Tia Dolores could not argue with God, she let the matter rest.   
A few minutes later, Felicity jumped on the table screaming, “Tarantula! Tarantula! They’re poisonous! Don’t worry Josefina, I’ll save you!” She grabbed the nearest thing which was a big metal cooking pot and began slapping it repeatedly down on the floor. Josefina’s sisters started screaming and running out of the kitchen, not because they were scared of a little tarantula, but because a red headed crazy American girl was currently destroying everything in the kitchen.   
“Josefina my wedding is ruined and it’s all your fault!” Clara yelled as Tia Dolores tried to comfort her.   
“My fault?!” Josefina echoed. “But I’m not the one destroying the kitchen!”  
“Yeah, but you brought her here,” Clara said. “You would have done better leaving them to die alone in the desert.”  
Josefina opened her mouth and then closed it. She knew Clara was only upset because so far her wedding preparations were not going so smoothly. Most Americanos that Josefina had met over the years were very polite and nice, this Felicity girl was the only rude one. Josefina wondered if she was sick in the head and maybe there was something that Josefina could do to cure her. It was not in Josefina’s nature to leave anyone or anything to die in the desert. Maybe this Felicity girl had too much sun and maybe Josefina could help her recover.   
After Felicity single handedly destroyed the Montoya’s kitchen and all the preparations for Clara’s wedding feast, Josefina and Tia Dolores thought it best if they put her in the weaving room with Teresita. Though their guest might destroy the weaving room, at least Teresita would be there to keep an eye on her and nothing in the weaving room was urgently needed for the wedding so at least they would have time to repair it afterwards. Teresita was annoyed that she had to babysit Felicity, but there was nothing she could say in protest.   
“So are you like their slave or something?” Felicity asked bluntly.   
Teresita didn’t answer. She simply sat in front of the big floor to ceiling loom and kept weaving away. She had tried to get Felicity to weave something, but the stubborn girl refused to sit down. In all her days of servanthood, Teresita had never before seen such disrespect. Meanwhile Patricia had at least started to weave something though she gave up and took a nap in a pile of sheepskin blankets instead.   
Felicity wandered around the room looking at weird forgein stuff that she probably wasn’t supposed to touch. “This feels like a weird museum. I mean like colonial Williamsburg or Plymouth Plantation. Are you sure it’s 1832 or are you just an actor dressed up?”  
Again Teresita made no comment, and Felicity sighed. Teresita reminded her of Marcus, the African slave who had worked in her father’s store, although Marcus was fun in that he would talk to her and help her with stamping out British gunpowder plots and Teresita was proving to be no fun at all. Then her eyes spied a big woven Mexican blanket on the wall. It was very pretty and instantly Felicity wanted it as a souvenir of her trip. “Ooo, what’s this?!”  
“Don’t touch it.” Teresita slapped Felicity’s hands away. “It’s a very special blanket, it’s mine and the Montoyas were nice enough to display it for me in such a prominent place in their home.”  
Felicity looked doubtful. “A stuffy closet weaving room is prominent?”   
Teresita ignored that comment. Her eyes looked faraway as she gazed at the blanket. “My mama wove that blanket for me when I was very young in our Navajo nation.”  
“I thought Mexicans were the only ones who weaved stuff?”  
Teresita’s eyes blazed and she said something that she would never dare say to sweet Josefina, “They stole it from us, like they stole many other things.” Felicity wasn’t sure how to react so she simply reached out a hand to touch the blanket and ran a hand alongside it. This time Teresita did not stop her because she thought Felicity was appreciating fine beauty and Navajo culture. She thought wrong. Teresita continued, “It was the only thing that I had with me when our enemies stole me away. I had it in Mexico City when I began working for Dolores. It’s a part of my heritage, the only reminder that I have of my mama, and my only real possession of my own.”  
“Wow.” Felicity wasn’t really listening and she still wanted such a pretty blanket for herself. And made by real Navajos too! Wouldn’t Glogan be impressed?   
Suddenly they were interrupted by a polite knock at the door. “Teresita?” Tia Dolores called. “We’re ready for the party, please come and serve.”  
Tersita bowed her head. “Si.”   
“Oooo! Party time!” Felicity raced out of the room in front of Teresita. “Let’s go boogie down!”  
******************************************************************************  
Music filled the Gran Sala as the fiesta was well underway. Josefina was laughing and dancing with a nice young Mexican man from their village when Clara angrily pulled her aside. “Josefina!”  
Oh no, Josefina had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. What could go wrong now? Clara had calmed down once Pablo arrived and as they got ready for the party in their bedroom, all four sisters shared a rare nice moment together making Josefina think that Clara had forgiven her for their mentally ill guest.   
“You have to do something about that Felicity girl!”  
Josefina sighed. “What did she do this time?”  
“That’s all you can say? My wedding is ruined and you’re still trying to cure a crazy Americano?!”  
“Clara, please.”  
Clara pointed to where a seemingly drunk Felicity was dancing on a table and trying to smooch it up with Pablo.  
“Ay, ay, ay,” Josefina murmured. “Pablo loves you Clara, he’s not going to let the Americano ruin that.”  
“Yeah, but I still don’t want her all over him like that! Who knew American women were so forward, and here I used to think that they are more reserved than us.”  
Before Josefina had to do anything, Patricia tugged on Felicity’s arm and practically dragged her out of the room. Josefina exhaled in relief, though her relief was short lived because as soon as the Americans left the room Clara called an end to the fiesta.  
Patricia drew Felicity aside and spoke in English. “Felicity, we have to do something about that Pablo guy.”  
Felicity frowned. “Why?”  
“He can’t marry Clara.”  
“Why not?”  
Patricia sighed. She hated explaining things to someone so dim witted as Felicity. “Because in 1847 he’s going to lead a revolt against America and then hang for it leaving his wife devastated.”  
Felicity frowned. “I really hate to be the reasonable one here, but that’s not our problem and if we do something drastic we might have to run from the time travel police and I’m kinda already in deep trouble with them for stuff on this road trip.”   
“Well, here’s the thing,” Patricia continued. “Historically, he does not marry a girl named Clara. He marries some chick named Maria Teresa Esquivel and if he marries Clara instead------”  
“Oooo!” Felicity gasped. “We’ve got to stop that wedding! Somebody messed with history before we even got here! The government should thank me after this!” Then Felicity rushed back into the Gran Sala leaving a meekly distressed Patricia to follow. By the time they went back in, the party was over and the Montoyas were sitting around cheerlessly as most of the women sewed and some old man played the violin. “What happened to the party?”  
The old man, who happened to Senor Montoya, put down his violin. “And you must be Senorita Felicity, the one I’ve heard so much about.”  
Felicity stared up at him and giggled. “You have a funny moustache.”  
Josefina abruptly stood, took Felicity by the hand and led her away from Papa.   
Felicity chattered on and on about stupid nonsense utterly oblivious to the fact that the rest of the Montoyas were dead silent. Finally, Tia Dolores had enough. She stood up and said, “Now is as good a time as any to make an announcement.”  
All four sisters looked up in surprise. Josefina noticed that Papa looked surprised too. Usually when Tia Dolores made announcements, Papa was in on the secret but not this time.   
Tia Dolores smiled broadly. “Your Papa and I are expecting a baby.”  
Francsica gasped loudly, Clara dropped her knitting needles, and Ana burst into tears. Papa said not a word. His face went as hard as stone as grief filled his eyes. Then he quickly left the room.   
Felicity eyeballs went back and forth as if she was at a tennis match.”I wish I had some popcorn, this is way better than any Spanish soap opera on TV.” Everyone ignored her.   
Tia Dolores’s smile fell as she put a hand over her stomach.. “What did I say?”  
Josefina stood and took Tia Dolores by the hand. “Tia Dolores,” she started slowly and cautiously. “Do you know how Mama died?” There was a cry of grief from her sisters, but Josefina’s eyes never left Tia Dolores.   
“She was ill-----”  
Josefina shook her head. After all these years nobody gave voice to it, but now Josefina was the only one brave enough to do so. “Mama died in childbirth.”   
Tia Dolores’s face went pale as she sank back into her seat. “No.”  
“Si.” Josefina choked down a wave of grief.  
“I thought you’re the youngest? Then where’s-----”  
Ana stood on shaky legs and fled from the room. One by one the Montoya sisters, and Patricia who left out of politeness, left the room so that only Tia Dolores, Josefina, and Felicity remained.   
Josefina could not contain her tears. “He’s buried with her.”  
“He?”   
“Si.”  
“But Ana had twins----”  
“Before Mama died,” said Josefina. “And despite her views on marriage, Ana herself hasn’t had kids since. Tia Magedelena couldn’t save her and so----”  
“And so that’s why she didn’t live here.” Tia Dolores finished. “Oh, your poor Papa, I must----”  
“Don’t,” said Josefina. “Give him a moment to grieve.”  
“Oh, get over yourselves!” Felicity exclaimed.  
Both women turned to her, but before Felicity’s tongue could do anymore damage a breathless Papa appeared in the doorway. He did not look at Tia Dolores. “Josefina, I need you. Quickly. A horse and rider rode up to the Rancho, the man is badly injured and unconscious.”  
“Ooo!” Felicity squealed as she followed both Josefina and Papa out of the room. “The plot thickens!”   
******************************************************************************  
Josefina could not believe her eyes. It was amazing that the man was still alive he was so badly hurt. As Papa and Tomas lifted the man down from the saddle and carried him inside, Josefina gasped.   
“What is it?!” Felicity demanded to know.   
“Not Patrick.”   
“Who is Patrick?!”  
Felicity followed Josefina, but she didn’t get any answers out of her. As they walked through the corridor, an arm reached out and grabbed Felicity. “Hey!”  
It was Francisca. “Who are you and where did you come from? I’ve met lots of American women in Santa Fe and you don’t dress like any of them.”  
“Tell me who that dead man Josefina is drooling over first,” Felicity challenged.   
Francisca sighed. “That’s Patrick O’Toole, an Americano we met years ago.”  
“Is Josefina in love with him?”  
“Not anymore. She almost married him, I almost married him, it’s a long story. Now who are you?!”  
“Josefina O’Toole,” Felicity said thoughtfully. “Has a nice ring to it. Let’s see what I can do to make some sparks fly. Thanks whoever you are.” Then Felicity used her magic to disappear out of Franscisa’s clutches.   
******************************************************************************  
Josefina stayed up all night taking care of Patrick O’Toole. Staring into his handsome face Josefina couldn’t help but wonder how different her life would have been had she indeed married him. “Oh, Patrick,” she murmured. “What are you doing back in New Mexico? I handed you the squash, remember?” Tears slid down Josefina’s cheeks as doubt and despair filled her heart. Maybe she shouldn’t have handed him the squash after all. “Why have you come back to me?”   
There was no answer of course, and Josefina prayed that God would heal him even if their relationship came to nothing more than friendship. Suddenly, Josefina a shriek and loud sobbing. Josefina looked up to see Teresita entering the room.. “I’ll watch over your young man,” Teresita said as she sat down besides Josefina. “Go comfort your sister.”  
Josefina hurried into the corridor to see Clara sobbing by Mama’s flower garden. Josefina quickly knelt by her sister and wrapped an arm around her. “Clara, Clara, what happened?”  
“This!” Clara held up a piece of paper, but she was waving it so widely that Josefina couldn’t read it. “Pablo has eloped with Maria Teresa Esquivel and they’re on their way to Santa Fe right now!”  
“No!” Josefina gasped. Teresa was a girl in their village around Josefina’s age. She was so ugly that she had never even had one suitor, nobody expected her to ever get married, never mind steal Clara’s man. “He’s never even met her!”  
Tears slid down Clara’s cheeks. “I thought he loved me.”  
“I thought so too,” Josefina whispered.   
Then Josefina heard extremely loud whispering coming from a passageway around the corridor. “Great work, Patricia,” Felicity said.   
“I don’t feel great about this,” Patricia admitted.   
“Why not? It was your idea!”  
“But that poor Clara girl-----”  
“Well you should’ve thought of that before we shot up Pablo and Teresa with cupid arrows!”   
“Now what do we do?” asked Patricia.  
“We get out of here fast.”   
As Felicity fumbled around in the dark for a time machine, Josefina walked towards them. She gasped to see Teresita’s sacred woven blanket in Felicity’s arms. “You can’t steal that!”  
Felicity looked up in surprise. “Watch me.”   
“No!” Josefina tried to wrestle the blanket out of Felicity’s arms.  
“Uh, Felicity,” said Patricia. “Hurry up with that time machine!”  
“I’m trying!” Felicity shouted as she and Josefina rolled around on the ground fighting over Teresita’s sacred Navajo blanket. The time machine was spinning and lighting up as it was getting ready to launch them into the future. With a burst of strength, Felicity threw Josefina to the ground. Josefina’s head hit the courtyard ground with a loud whack as she fell unconscious. In a sparkling whirl of light, Felicity, Patricia, and Josefina’s unconscious body disappeared into the endless void of time.   
Secret Government Hideout Under The Four Corners, Summer 2019  
Benjamin Davidson put his head in his hands and sighed as he looked at the surveillance video on the computer screen. Ever since Felicity Merriman brought him to the future, he wasn’t content with his life here. The only career he was trained for, 18th century shopkeeper, no longer existed outside the living history museum of colonial Williamsburg and he couldn’t go there without the haunting memories of a certain red headed mischief maker. Time travel fascinated him and so he sighed up with the United States Government to work as a secret time travel agent. The job was fun most days, but it mainly meant cleaning up other people’s messes and Ben wasn’t particularly happy working for a warped, corrupted American government. We fought so hard to make this country a reality, Ben often thought in his most cynical moments, only to have it all go down the toilet three hundred years later. Part of Ben wished that he could go back to his life in 1774, but another part of him knew that he would never be content without a certain young lass getting in the way to make his life exciting.   
After that fiasco at Heart’s Desire Beach all Ben wanted to do was wrestle Felicity Merriman to the ground and kiss her into oblivion. They were just friends, he wasn’t ready to commit and what if she rejected him or it didn’t work out? No, friendship was best even though the mere thought of her sent his heart racing. Why of all people did she have to be on a road trip of all things? And whoever let her go on a road trip by herself anyway? What were Samantha and the rest of the gang at Play Road thinking by letting that happen? Felicity was like a tornado storming across the west leaving a path of destruction in her wake. Felicity was darn lucky that he was the agent assigned to the task of investigating the series of mysterious illegal incidents across the west and not somebody else. Somebody else would have reported her, somebody else would have arrested her which is what he should have done but instead here he was deleting the surveillance tapes and wiping out any record of her journey. Ben didn’t want to be the one to arrest her, he couldn’t bring himself to do what he knew was right. Someone as crazy as Felicity couldn’t be locked up, she had to be running free like a herd of wild mustangs.  
Besides, how much damage could one girl do? So far no major butterfly effects had happened that he was aware of. If he saw her right now, he wouldn’t scold her, he’d kiss her and that thought scared him most of all because getting involved romantically with someone like Felicity Merriman was a dangerous game indeed. Ben was a little worried about the Nez Perce girl, but at least Felicity didn’t get away with stealing her horse so he figured all was well on that front. Annie Oakley managed to put Felicity in her place all by herself and Ben was grateful for the iconic western legend’s Victorian sense of moral standards. Buffalo Bill was already so crazy on his own that Ben figured Felicity couldn’t possibly add anymore damage there. Kidnapping Patricia was also a bad move on Felicity’s part, but thankfully Patricia wasn’t from the past so it was out of his realm of jurisdiction. Ben stopped his search for the lost time machine in San Francisco because he assumed it was a lost cause and he had to keep up with Felicity’s next set of antics which had something to do with a Mexican girl. He hoped Felicity didn’t leave a time machine laying around the Montoya’s Rancho because a family of confused 1800s Mexicans running around 2019 would be worse than stealing all that cheese from those poor modern dairy farmers in Wisconsin. He was just about to go investigate when the door creaked open behind him and his boss said,“What are you working on Agent Davidson?”   
Ben jumped, and with the press of one button permanently deleted every Felicity file on the computer seconds before his boss looked over his shoulder. “Oh, nothing much.”  
“Anything at all on that trail of unregistered time machines?”   
Ben hated his boss, but now was not the time to dwell on it. “No, sir.”  
“Well keep working on it,” his boss snapped. “We can’t have illegal unregistered devices wreaking havoc with the space time continuum.”  
“No, sir, we can’t.” Ben thought of Felicity, and for her sake hoped that she wouldn’t wreak too much havoc though he knew she would. Oh my dear Lissie, he thought with a gentle smile at the mental image of her electric green eyes staring into his on Heart’s Desire Beach, what am I going to do with you?   
The Park, PFV Massachusetts Christmas Day 2020  
When Josefina awoke, she was to her utter horror laying in a coffin. Tears sprang to her eyes as her heart thumped in utter panic. Did her family think she was dead? Did they bury her next to Mama by some terrible mistake? Now that she was in the earth, would she die down here? And would her family mourn her just like they had mourned for Mama, Abuelito, and Tia Magdelena? “Oh, God,” she prayed. “Please don’t take me yet, I’m not ready. Tia Dolores needs me not to fail her like I failed Tia Magedelena. And oh, Clara, poor sweet Clara, her wedding day is ruined. And Patrick, poor sweet Patrick O’Toole. Help me find a way out of this mess so that I can help my family, and Patrick, heal again.”   
Josefina suddenly sat up and pushed on the lid with two hands. To her great surprise, the coffin swung open easily. The first thing she felt was a bitter, biting cold, colder than anything she had ever felt before. Looking around, she saw several inches of snow on the ground as more gentle snowflakes fell in a whirl of whiteness. It was more snow than Josefina had ever seen before and she shivered as she pulled her rebozo tightly around her though it did nothing to keep the fierce chill from seeping into her bones. There were dead trees everywhere, types of trees that she had never seen before. Next to her was a big green tree that sort of looked like it had tiny cactus needles sticking out of it but not really as it was still too lush and full for that. It was covered in strange tiny colored lights that certainly were not candles but Josefina had no words to identify what they were exactly. She recognized miniature angels hanging from the branches beside what she assumed were figurines of the baby Jesús. Dimly, she wondered if it was Navidad time but quickly dismissed that idea as it had been July only a few minutes ago. Unless she had been unconscious in that coffin for months and didn’t know it. That terrible thought made Josefina extremely uneasy and so she decided to keep staring at her surroundings.   
In the distance, she heard loud music and voices singing in what she thought was Inglés. The ground was made of an ugly black hard surface, at least the few spots that weren’t covered in snow. Across from the glowing green tree was a wooden bench with an old man sleeping on it. He was dirty and ragged though he didn’t look like most Americano cowboys that Josefina had seen. Josefina wondered if he was dead because surely sleeping out in such weather was enough to kill anybody but she was strangely relieved to hear loud snores coming out of him. Josefina noticed that she was also surrounded by wooden white houses, houses that looked exactly like her little farmhouse toy and like the houses Patrick O’Toole always spoke of when he told her stories about his life in Missouri. Am I in Americano territory? Is this Patrick’s Missouri? Josefina thought. And how did I get here?   
Beside her, Josefina saw another girl emerging from a coffin. From her deerskin dress and long braids, Josefina could tell at a glance that she was neither Navajo nor Puebloan but she had to try. Turning to the girl, Josefina said in rapid fire Spanish, “Hello my name is Josefina. Who are you? Can you take me to your Pueblo? Do you know Senor Esteban in Santa Fe?”   
The girl blinked at her in confusion, so Josefina tried sign language. Whenever Papa needed to talk to Senor Esteban or another Navajo who didn’t know Spanish he always used their universal sign language and he insisted his girls learn it too in case they ever found themselves in trouble one day. Before Josefina could remember what shape her hands should take, she heard laughter that she would recognize anywhere.   
That Felicity girl went riding by on a pretty chestnut mare with a handsome young man on a white horse next to her. She was wearing a bright red cloak and Josefina was immediately jealous of its warmth. She was also speaking loudly in Inglés. Patrick O’Toole had once tried to teach Josefina Inglés, but she could never get the hang of it and quickly gave up. She caught a few words of what Felicity said, but she was talking so fast and so foreignly that Josefina couldn’t follow even the gist of what Felicity and her young man were discussing. Josefina suddenly regretted not learning Inglés, she should have tried harder.   
Josefina glanced at the Navajo girl next to her. From the angry fire in the girl’s eyes, Josefina was willing to bet that she also knew this Felicity girl. Josefina wondered where Patricia was, was she still at the Rancho in Santa Fe?   
Josefina took off running after Felicity. She didn’t know where she was or how she got here or what was going on, but she knew one thing for certain; it was all that Merriman girl’s fault.


End file.
